How about an update?

Andy here...

It's Wednesday, a week and a half of working remotely from Mexico City, and things are definitely finding their pace.

First, a couple quick tech notes. You know you want 'em!

My dual SIM phone is working out really well. Apple doesn't make a dual-SIM iPhone -- why would they? -- so I had to get an Android. I've been wanting to get off the overpriced Apple bandwagon anyway. I decided to go cheap. Figured, if it gets lost or stolen, who cares? How cheap? I bought a Redmi 4a off Amazon for around $100. I really like it! It does everything I need it to and even takes decent pictures. It's also speedy and very configurable, which appeals to the nerd in me. (Of course, I encrypted it!) The dual-SIM functionality works like a charm. I have a Mexican Telcel SIM in slot one, and my US Verizon SIM in slot two. Once I run out my Verizon contract, I'm porting my US number to Google Voice and replacing SIM two with a memory chip -- or who knows. Anyway -- definitely a success.

I resolved the issues I was having with the WiFi dropping out. I had a major drop out in the middle of my Friday engineering call. It was a shitshow! My "office" is two heavy concrete walls away from a WiFi router which I have no control over. It's a generic all-in-one job with an integrated fiber optic cable modem. There are dozens of other WiFi networks nearby competing for bandwidth. The poor thing does stand a chance. Even right next to it, the WiFi, while fast, will drop out for 30 seconds at a time. If you're plugged into the ethernet in the back of the router, she's dead steady. Perfect for the three or four teleconferences I have per day. So, instead of relocating to the where the router is, or running a 100-foot ethernet cable, I decided to buy a pair of Powerline network adapters. These use the apartment's electrical system to route the network traffic. Amazon to the rescue! About $80 and two days of shipping later, I have a steady 50Mbp in the office. Not the whole 200Mbps, but fast enough for anything GoToMeeting can throw at me. My network monitor says I've been up 50 hours without a single failure. Sweet!

Anyway -- what else is up? Dar and I went to a couple ex-pat events in town. I'm sure she will update everyone on those. I really enjoyed meeting people at both. We got a chance to watch Monday Night Football at Chili's of all places, with some really nice folks. It was great hearing them share their experiences living in Mexico City. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep in touch with them. One of the guys there is into paragliding -- something I've been wanting to try out. Maybe I'll have an airborne update soon.

We had our first home-cooked dinner last night. I made meatballs in chipotle sauce. Even though we had to adapt the recipe because we weren't able to find a couple of the ingredients, they still turned out great! We've committed to cooking at home more -- eating out, even here, gets expensive. Here's the kicker -- one of the local supermarket chains will deliver your groceries for $2. Crazy, right? No excuses not to cook anything you want at home.

So much more to share, but it will have to wait until the next entry -- maybe Dar will fill in the banks with her next post.

Saludos from Mexico!

Presently somewhere,

Andy